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The Awakening of Dragons

Chapter Five

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by NomexGlove

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After the “Sebastian incident”, they were at least able to tighten up their security, putting up more blockades further away and hindering the approach of any humans, though it had clearly proven difficult for them to make sure that they could be safely found only. If Julie had not transformed too, or if they had known that more would become dragons – not only dragonesses – before, they would have been able to warn everyone. Yet setting up signals and signs for where they were, where their friends and family could find them, was something that had had to wait, sadly, until two had already become dragons.

Not that that was too much of a bad thing… Julie seemed to be taking it better than expected, though the dragoness was quieter than she had been as a human, which worried Sandra greatly. She’d never seen Julie so quiet and composed, the dragoness often lost in her thoughts and looking out across the valleys. She hadn’t expressed any interest in going down into the caverns, though her introduction to dragonhood, to be fair to her, had been different. Alan had suggested broaching the subject to her of the idea that Julie might be pregnant too, as they had found themselves, but Alex had quashed that one. That was something that, surely, would be too much too soon.

They had time. Even as Arya settled outside the “ring” they had determined caused the transformation, where the cave system stretched out underneath their feet, to talk with her mother. Even as Brent sat with her father and tried to explain to the man that had raised him that she was never going to be the same again, her father constantly getting her pronouns wrong. Brent didn’t mind too much, as long as her father tried. Although she had lived her life until becoming a dragon as a male, it would have been wrong to be male and a dragon. It made sense to her and, for the time being, that was all that was needed.

Arya was no longer her mother’s little girl, the career-driven young woman who was going to make her proud. Neither was Brent her father’s sports star, the man who was going to get all the way to the top, whichever way she chose. Those were live left far behind and they were alike in the sense that it unsettled them both the same to see one of their parents mourning the fact that something had been lost, something had been left behind. Maybe they had been blind not to see it, though their parents brought it into stark relief.

Arya’s father had not even been able to bring himself to come to see her. Her mother had not said it aloud, of course, but she knew it in the way her mother slid her gaze away. His absence spoke louder than anything else and she took a flight afterwards, just to clear her head.

Did he hate her? She wondered. Did he think her disgusting? It was not something that she wanted to delve into all that much, for she wasn’t so sure that she would like the answer to the questions she had to ask. Her mother was enough and she would have to lean into that, relax with it, enjoy her company, her presence, something that she honestly thought she had lost before. She was glad that what she had thought was gone forever had, at least, come back in some part.

Maybe with her dragon sisters around her, those that she dearly loved, she would find her new place in the world. For it had become clearer and clearer to her that she needed a purpose, that she needed something to fly forward into, her wings spread, charming and confident, the dragon that she had never known that she needed to be.

Julie reassured Sandra, perhaps a little too much, that all was well, though they tried not to let the guilt weigh them down as a whole. Something was going on in the land and the caves that was greater than even them as dragons and they were not to be held to blame, not to be held responsible. It was only the way of a fate greater than theirs, though they still had control over the destinies they chose, as Kelvin had inadvertently demonstrated. Maybe her breaking from the expected “norm” had given them the freedom and release in knowing that they too could choose their fates.

The newly transformed dragonesses, as the days passed, were at least able to confirm that they were with eggs, though Sebastian struggled with that the most, Julie having had a daughter already in her life. It was not something that Sebastian could honestly find the words for and Santino comforted her with her wing over her back, allowing what had been suspected but not confirmed prior sink into her partner. Together, they would be able to take on anything, though Seb was at least privately soothed by the fact that laying eggs and all that had happened to Santino had not seemed to harm or hurt her in the slightest. That, at least, had come through.

Arya took her mother, once, to see the nesting mounds, though could not stop a sense of unease in her. It was strange to have a human at the nesting grounds, as if they were sacred, though she’d tried not to pass it on to her mother too much. It would have been rude and yet rudeness, in that way, was a human construct, not something that she had to force on herself anymore. Her mother had laid her hand on her shoulder and stood with her, though Arya would forever remember the words she uttered there.

“You’re going to be a fantastic mother.”

That, despite the turmoil of losing her new life and being thrust forward into a new one racing away before her feet, helped Arya, at least a little.

Sometimes that was enough.

Alan, however, found herself with a new sense of purpose, forcing herself on as the educator, the one who would find herself and find the answers one way or another. Nothing untoward was going on there, though Brent spent more time down in the caves with her, as if the other dragoness too was trying to escape from something. Alan didn’t question it though, merely grateful for the quiet help. If Brent had something to say, she would say it when she was good and ready. Otherwise,

Taking Santino, the strongest of those with another breath ability other than fire so far, to a clearing, Sebastian sitting and watching, her curiosity perked. Though she made sure, that time, to be far enough back that Santino would not catch her in the line of fire, so to speak. The clearing was larger than where they usually tucked themselves away, a little exposed, though they were a little more confident than before that they would have plenty of warning if anyone came – when they came. Word was spreading, according to the people coming and going to see them, and soon their world would change yet again.

The dragons would deal with that when the time came. They had never expected to stay hidden forever. Yet they knew their time was running out as the days grew longer and longer, the sun remaining a little longer in the sky every day. The warmer days, milder, pulled at their scales, though it made Santino, in a way, reach for the coolness of her calling, the flow of rippling breath that seemed able to heal and do…something. She’d only managed to heal a small cut, implored to do so by instinct, and Alan was the one who had dragged out as much scant information as she had from her. What more could it do? Well, that was what they were there to find out. What they did know was that others seemed to be able to breathe the life breath too, but to varying degrees of success. It was something that had to be trained, though everyone seemed to adequately be able to breathe fire to a moderate degree. Alan said that maintaining a flame, however, had something to do with lung capacity and strength…whatever that meant.

“Now… Relax and breathe, I guess,” Alan said, her nose crinkling a little cutely in a way that would have been enough to make any dragon’s heart skip a beat. “Let it out, as if you are letting it flow from you. You didn’t use fire much before, did you?”

Santino shook her head.

“No, it was never strong enough to reach deeply into the egg mounds. I think I know what you mean, but this feels a lot more natural to me than fire.”

The dragoness pulled her head back into a proud S-shape, like a swan, her breath rippling around her tongue, lingering in the back of her throat. It was a good feeling to let it out, flowing from her jaws like a stream, yet it was pushed too as if there was an urgency behind it that, even then, could not be halted.

Across the grass, it flowed, soothing, sinking into the ground and, before their eyes, it changed. Grass sprouted into the tickling ripple of breath, fresh and green, rich with fructose, fingers reaching for the life-giving breath that had rejuvenated it so swiftly from a winter slumber. It was difficult to kill the seeds and the roots of grass and Santino did not yet have control over what sprouted forth, even if new life could be planted too.

Flowers grew, leaves unfurling, blooming as if it was spring already, in pinks and purples and even blues. Some came with lines on their petals, special marks that would lead pollinating insects to where they needed to be, others larger with many petals, all clustered in together, one on top of the other. Some had trumpets and bells, snowdrops dangling with heavy, solemn heads, bowing to the quiet contemplation of forget-me-nots.

She kept exhaling, a growl behind it, her eyes wide with wonder, reflecting the light purples and blues of her breath, though there was only so much capacity in her lungs as new life bloomed. Even Alan was amazed – and it took a lot to get her to be in awe, considering all that that she had been at the forefront of, at least so far.

This, she thought. This is what I was meant to do.

_ _

She’d liked gardening, a long time ago. She’d not had much chance to do it at university, of course, being a student and limited in things, but she’d still liked going out to walk their dog, particularly through the city gardens and outside the city to nice places with nice flowers. She knew all the Latin names of her favourite plants and flowers, though had been embarrassed to reel them off, even when she found a particularly nice specimen out on her walks.

Being a dragoness, however, took all of that from her. There was no need, not anymore, for her to hold back, not in the slightest, not when it could all be boiled down to her being her true self. Climbing plants twisted at the base of trees at the edge of the clearing and she realised, with a shock, that she had nearly covered the entire large clearing before her in green growth and luscious plant life.

Letting the last trickles of her breath die out, she lifted her head high in wonder, surveying the splendour, as if the ground before her had been strewn with jewels. Yet there could be nothing finer and more extravagant, to her, than a garden like that, sprawling with flowers of every size, shape and colour – even a humungous orange blossom that was larger than her head, speckled with red dots leading to the stigma and stamens. Alan’s lips parted, a genuine smile pulling at them, eyes wide and shining.

“Wow…”

They played a little more with her breath, though the use of it left Santino more exhausted than expected, her throat sore. Perhaps it was the sort of thing that required more stamina to pull off, though the excited flutter of anticipation to try again curled deep inside her. What more could she do? What could she bring life to, if it came to giving life like with growing plants or healing an injury?

Sebastian helped Santino build a shelter to give at least some of her new garden some cover, though it was still on the cooler side. There was no telling if another snap frost would come, especially up there in the mountains, and sweep her work from the face of the earth, though the seeds and the roots, where born, would remain. Santino could always build it again, but the first deliberate use of her life-giving breath had her heart trembling, as if it was constantly skipping a beat but all in a way that made her feel as if that very life force and energy was thrumming through her. She leaned into her partner, of a sorts, a smile on her lips, Sebastian sharing one back with her.

“Thanks, hon, I’m glad you’re here to see this. It makes it better… Maybe more real?” Santino chuckled, ducking her head a little shyly, devoid of the jokes and forwardness that had been her previous norm. “I dunno what I’m saying. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you, raising our offspring…together.”

But when Sebastian tenderly rested her snout against Santino’s sharing the moment, sharing breath, humming softly, they both knew that all was right with the world.

*

Training a dragon’s fiery breath was easier and Brent and Arya took charge of that with Isla-Rae also being one of the strongest in that regard, strangely so. Maybe it took a finer control to direct it, but they cleared dead wood and trees by carefully setting them ablaze, the ash something that would crumble down and fertilise the ground in a way they might not have considered before. Where the land could be burned down, it was an act of rejuvenation in itself, allowing the dead to be cleared and fresh life, once again, to spring forth.

Isla-Rae leapt and bounded, making a game out of it, setting each branch alight of a lightning-struck tree, one at a time. It made it harder and Arya growled as she struggled to keep up, more one for brute force rather than accuracy. But that was why they trained and practised, Brent cursing. She knew the dragoness wanted to be the best, to be ahead of everyone else, her natural competitiveness coming to the forefront, but Arya also did Brent no favours if she made everything easy for her. Not like she was winning either anyway – Isla-Rae chirped and laughed and joyfully left them both in the dust.

“Oh, now you’re just showing off!”

Brent grumped, sitting on her haunches and tucking her tail around herself, wisps of smoke still coming from her nostrils. Yet the release of breathing fire had warmed her body all the way through and she felt a little better, even if she was still struggling to find her place there, what she was meant to be doing. She’d thought she was okay with everything, in the weeks after her initial transformation, but even she had to admit, after seeing Kelvin’s struggles, that the mind could lie to itself. A bit deep for her to be thinking, if she was honest, but it was what it was.

Her stomach growled, their thoughts turning to hunting.

“I can’t wait until we can grow some vegetables here,” Brent grumbled, though even she had to chuckle a little at the fact that she was the one wanting something other than meat. “It’ll be a change… I liked eating a variety before, you know? Lots of different things.”

“Winter should always be the hardest time for us,” Arya said, her mind cast back to old lessons in biology. “I think we should have plenty of opportunities and we’ll be able to travel further afield too if we perhaps need to grow grains and stuff on the lower slopes where it’s milder. Maybe we can even store it?”

Little did they know, at that point, that Santino and the use of the life-giving breath might have just the answer for them, which would prove to be at least one little thing to boost Brent’s spirits. That would be soon seen, however, as the dragons practised breathing fire, finding it burning deep within them, striking at the back of their mouths to release the blaze.

There was a lot to consider, a lot to wonder about, a world of opportunities stretching out before them. The people that came to visit them, most often, did not stay too long, for they had to get back down the mountain while it was light, for it was a treacherous terrain. Darrius’ mother and Jenson’s ex-partner visited, though Anniyah did speak to them and they were civil enough. Maybe it was something about such a great change coming over them that they had to, in the end, put at least some of their differences aside. Life and love, unfortunately, came with changes and they could only be as gently and as diplomatically handled as possible: something that was not always actually possible when one brought emotion into the mix.

“You know, I didn’t think it would end up like this,” Brent said quietly, preparing with Santino to head out on a flight. “You seem so settled…especially with Sebastian. And Isla-Rae too. But I didn’t think… I guess I didn’t believe that all of this would really be permanent.”

Santino rumbled comfortingly, rubbing her side against her sister’s length to soothe her, gently and lightly.

“Oh, Brent… I didn’t know you felt like that. How long have you been feeling so? Do you think it’s similar to what happened to Kelvin?”

“No…” Brent shook her head. “No, that was different. But I think I’m getting there… I mean to something better. Maybe?”

Santino smiled and nodded.

“Well, whatever you need, all of us will be here for you, whatever, whenever. Even when you’re being a real pain in the –”

“Okay! I think it’s about time we head out now!”

Laughing and jostling, they rough-housed briefly, playing with snaps of their jaws, though the call of the hunt was upon them and they needed to bring back a carefully claimed meal for the flight of dragons, especially with three more to care for there. Spreading their wings, Brent’s heart a little more settled than it had been before, they took to the air.

Simply being together was enough, for the time being.